Ahead of the OnePlus ‘Smash the Past’ contest, people are already murdering innocent smartphones

For a company that didn’t exist a half-year ago, OnePlus has done a phenomenal job of generating hype for its recently unveiled OnePlus One handset. Now that the dust has settled, we recently managed to get some hands-on time with the device and are rather impressed by what we’ve seen so far.

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The only major downside to the OnePlus One is that you can’t just pre-order it and have it ship when it’s ready. Instead, the Cyanogenmod-powered device is only available through an invite system, and OnePlus hasn’t really disclosed much about how this process will work.

While the Smash the Past contest has generated a lot of attention from a marketing stand-point, it’s also raised some concerns

At least for the moment, the only ‘official’ way to get your hands on the phone is through an upcoming “Smash the Past” competition. The rules for the Smash the Past competition will be formally unveiled tomorrow, April 25th, where 100 lucky folks will be given the opportunity to get a OnePlus One for just $1, provided they are willing to smash their existing handset.

While the Smash the Past contest has generated a lot of attention from a marketing stand-point, it’s also raised some concerns from folks that feel the idea is environmentally irresponsible. Additionally, the vague level of details about the event have led some people to smash their devices ahead of the competition’s official start!

The way the competition is supposed to work is you are to enter your email address (starting 4/25) and OnePlus will choose 100 folks from the list. These lucky individuals will then smash their phones and will get the OnePlus One for $1. Want to know what happens when you jump the gun on a contest and start smashing away without knowing the rules? Check out the many videos below, and weep for all the poor handsets that were destroyed in vain.

Smash the Past gone wrong..

Now to be fair, some of these phones may not have been 100% functioning even before they were smashed. On the other hand, the second video shows a perfectly working HTC One M7, and in the last video the person doing the smashing thinks the contest is for an HTC One. Probably the saddest part is that this is just a sampling, as there are several more videos out there.

The big takeaway here is that you should always fully understand the rules of any competition before jumping in, especially when your phone’s life is at stake.

Perhaps OnePlus will turn this into a positive PR experience and invite some of these folks to ‘buy’ a OnePlus One for a $1 anyhow? We’ll see, but for now, put down that hammer and walk away slowly.